Springfield police cruisers block off Belmont Avenue between Hollywood, Daytona and Lawndale streets early Thursday morning as they investigate a homicide that claimed the life of a local man late Wednesday night. (Conor Berry I The Republican)

UPDATE, 12:29 p.m. – Police have identified the victim as Angel S. Llorens, 22, of 73 Hollywood St. The shooting was not related to the May 21 Orange Street shooting that killed 30-year-old Fabian Pacheco, said Sgt. John M. Delaney.

SPRINGFIELD — Two killings in two nights in the same neighborhood. That's the scenario facing Springfield police, who are investigating back-to-back homicides in Forest Park on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Less than 24 hours after detectives wrapped up their crime-scene investigation of Tuesday's fatal shooting on Orange Street, they were called back to the neighborhood around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday to probe another shooting turned deadly at the intersection of Belmont Avenue and Hollywood and Daytona streets.

The victim died from his injuries, according to Springfield Police Detective Capt. Thomas Trites, who confirmed the case is now an active homicide investigation. "I can't say more than that," he said early Thursday. A friend of the victim, speaking near the crime scene Thursday morning, said the man was shot at least once in the chest.

The incident happened near a row of shops just a couple of hundred yards southeast of the "X," the neighborhood's main commercial district.

Police cruisers blocked off Belmont Avenue between Hollywood, Daytona and Lawndale streets as investigators recovered shell casings from the road and combed the crime scene for evidence.

Both uniformed and plainclothes officers could be seen searching sections of Daytona and Hollywood streets near Belmont Avenue.

A handful of officers appeared to be stationed near the entrance to a large, wood-frame home on Hollywood Street bordering Belmont.

Others shone flashlights on the ground while searching near a chain-link fence at the corner of Daytona Street and Belmont.

Authorities said the shooting may have stemmed from an earlier argument between the victim and as many as three males, some of whom may have been riding bicycles. The victim was shot multiple times and rushed to Baystate Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Springfield police detectives investigate a homicide scene in the middle of Belmont Avenue in the city's Forest Park neighborhood early Thursday morning. A man was shot there late Wednesday night, police said. (Conor Berry I The Republican)

Trites said he could not provide additional information about the incident. But his colleague, Capt. Cheryl Clapprood, told 22News that investigators were looking for three Hispanic males and a Black Honda sedan that may be linked to the crime.

Capt. Larry Brown said officers responded to the scene after police received a shots-fired call at 10:27 p.m. Wednesday.

Neighborhood resident Bobbie Pendleton said the sound of three shots woke her from a sound sleep. "It just went, 'Pow, pow, pow,' " she said Thursday. "I went outside. Everybody was running. I heard somebody say that someone was lying on the ground."

Pendleton said she ran to the victim, whom she recognized as a neighbor and friend, and found him moaning and bleeding from a wound to his chest. "I just rubbed his head and told him to stay awake," she said.

Pendleton said the police arrived quickly and the EMTs were not far behind. Police soon asked her to get away from the injured man and the EMTs placed him into an ambulance. She said she could see them performing CPR on the victim through the rear window.

“They kept doing it,” she said. “I will never get that out of my head,”

Pendleton and Larry Tremblay, another neighborhood resident and friend of the victim, said the man was in his early 20s and had moved into a home at the corner of Belmont Avenue and Hollywood Street several months ago.

“He was a wicked nice kid,” Tremblay said. “Everybody loved the kid. Everybody knows [him], he was a great guy, a great guy.”

“He’s not a thug or anything like that.” Tremblay said. “He didn’t like the gang-bangers and the trouble-makers. He wasn’t a trouble-maker, but he wasn’t one to put his tail between his legs and walk away, either.”

Both said he was known for his sense of humor. “Every day he would have these jokes and smiles,” Tremblay said. “I have never seen him yell or be mean to anybody.”

Pendleton called the victim "a sweetheart."

Both said the man was a freelance tattoo artist who had his own equipment and would drive to people’s homes to give them tattoos, hoping to someday open his own tattoo parlor. He also worked at a nearby liquor store in East Longmeadow.

A Springfield police detective is seen at far right with a flashlight as he looks for evidence early Thursday morning in connection with a fatal shooting late Wednesday night at the intersection of Belmont Avenue and Daytona and Hollywood streets. (Conor Berry I The Republican)

The victim had a young son, they said.
Tremblay and Pendleton both expressed concerns about their neighborhood, which has been the scene of several shootings in recent years.
“It’s not like it used to be around here,” Tremblay said.
“It’s scary now,” Pendleton added. “You need more cops around here.”

The homicide was the second in that section of Forest Park in the past nine months. A man was gunned down in August 2012 at a Commonwealth Avenue apartment just around the corner from Wednesday night's fatal shooting.

Meanwhile, police continue to investigate Tuesday night's homicide on Orange Street. The victim, 30-year-old Fabian Pacheco, died after being shot multiple times around 8 p.m. at his home at 273 Orange St., police said.

"Officers arrived immediately and observed shell casings outside and inside the first floor left apartment," Springfield Police Department spokesman Sgt. John Delaney said of the apparent drug-related shooting. Investigators found quantities of oxycodone, marijuana and cocaine at the scene, Delaney said.

Wednesday night's homicide marked the eighth killing this year in Springfield, which logged a total of 12 murders in 2012.

Anyone with information about the city's latest pair of homicides is asked to call the Springfield Police Detective Bureau at (413) 787-6355. Anonymous text-message tips may be sent to 274637 (or CRIMES), beginning the message with the word "SOLVE."